A Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) Better Brain. Better Life forum kicked off the events for Seniors’ Month at Rockdale City Council on 4 March 2015.
The Better Brain. Better Life forums, sponsored by Genworth, are a series of public forums with talks by leading experts in ageing to promote strategies for better brain health.
The forum was opened by General Manager of Rockdale City Council, Meredith Wallace, who delivered a supportive community address and reiterated Rockdale City Council’s commitment to hosting educational forums for seniors.
Walkley-Award winning journalist and author of the blog Coming of Age, Adele Horin, gave a delightful personal insight into the art of ageing well and encouraged the audience to involve themselves in a variety of volunteering activities. Well-known actor and official Ambassador for CHeBA, PJ Lane, provided the audience with a personal insight into Alzheimer’s which his father, Don Lane, was diagnosed with some years before he passed away.
Associate Professor Belinda Goodenough entertained the audience with humour while at the same time emphasising the modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Her talk ‘Your Brain and Dementia’ provided some fascinating statistics about the brain and encouraged the adopting of strategies to assist in preventing or delaying the onset of age-related cognitive disorders, such as dementia.
The forum also included engaging presentations from leading experts in the field of ageing research, CHeBA’s Co-Director Professor Henry Brodaty and Associate Professor Lee-Fay Low.
Dr Adith Mohan summarised CHeBA’s world-first brain stimulation and cognitive training trial which is currently recruiting its next wave of participants.
“The hope is that through brain stimulation we will not only be able to achieve sustained improvement in people’s thinking abilities, but we will also be able to provide benefit to people with mild cognitive impairment, and perhaps even slow the decline in memory in those affected, to provide a longer period of good quality life,” said Dr Mohan.
Professor Brodaty said that the message of these talks is not only to showcase the complexities of the brain and CHeBA’s latest research, but to also show that it is never too early and never too late to be proactive about brain health.
